"When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it."
I don't know if Eve in her perfect and innocent state felt this way in the garden, but one thing is certain: in our sinful natures, we human beings desire that which we know has been forbidden us. Edgar Allan Poe speaks of this sinful human tendency that exists in us in his famous short story The Black Cat:
"....And then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart -- one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itself -- to offer violence to its own nature -- to do wrong for the wrong's sake only -- that urged me to continue and finally...."
How then can we overcome this fatal and destructive tendency in us? By coming to God earnestly and praying the Lord's prayer sincerely from our hearts, especially where it says, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Amen."
Amen! This is so true! And how wonderful it is for us to come to this understanding and believe with our whole hearts! Just believe! He is real!
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